Carolina Panthers pick Mac Jones at No. 8 overall in Mel Kiper’s latest 2021 mock draft
In his first mock draft of 2021, ESPN’s Mel Kiper predicted the Panthers would pick North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance with the No. 8 overall choice in the draft.
This time around, Kiper has Lance going to the Patriots at No. 9 via trade and has Carolina selecting Alabama QB Mac Jones with their pick, instead.
“The team clearly isn’t satisfied with Teddy Bridgewater and wants to upgrade. So let’s assume Carolina can’t pry away Watson and instead looks to the draft. I have Jones just ahead of North Dakota State’s Trey Lance in my rankings, but a lot will depend on their interviews with teams leading up to the draft. Jones, who showed tremendous downfield accuracy last season, is more ready to play in 2021, though, and the Panthers have the talent on offense to help him succeed.”
Concerned is the word that comes to mind over the idea of this franchise drafting Jones, a prospect that has been growing for weeks.
The Panthers clearly have at least a fair amount of interest in Jones, with Jourdan Rodrigue of the Athletic reporting recently that they “like” Jones and “love” Justin Fields of Ohio State.
The dramatic difference between these two QB prospects is at the crux of our concerns about this front office regime and their ideas about the most important position on the field.
On the one hand, when coach Matt Rhule was hired he said he was “unbelievably excited” to work with Cam Newton – a dynamic dual-threat quarterback who Fields has been rightly compared to a lot already. However, Newton was soon after released in favor of a far inferior athlete named Teddy Bridgewater. After a disappointing 2020 season, the team is now ready to move on from Bridgewater over “physical limitations” that were obvious when they signed him to a three-year, $63 million deal.
Jones hasn’t played a single snap in the NFL yet, so it’s impossible to say what his career will look like or at what level he’ll compete at. That said, Jones’ game is much more that of a traditional pocket passer like Bridgewater as opposed to an improvisational threat like Newton or Fields. He can’t match the athleticism and creativity of the top-four QB prospects in this draft class, to say nothing of a phenom like Deshaun Watson.
The core question here is what kind of QB do the Panthers really want: are they hoping they can defy recent trends and win with an old-fashioned cerebral QB like Philip Rivers, or are they truly in love with passers like Fields and Newton, who can operate outside of structure and transcend good defense and mediocre teammates with their physical gifts?
Who can say? Only time.
